Our Opinion: Taxes to maintain safety don't go far enough

The news that the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce's board is neutral on two ballot issues to increase taxes in the city and county of Marion could be interpreted as a step in the right direction.

While the board said it was not taking a position on the taxes it did say that the taxes, "will only perpetuate the current silo approach to local government."

The chamber has, over the last several years, championed the idea of more efficient government.

Rather than an income tax increase from the city and a sales tax increase from the county, the chamber would like to see a unified proposal to solve the problem of funding safety forces and 9-1-1 in the city and county.

But it didn't go so far as to back a tax to support that - only to support letting residents vote on such a tax.

Here is the entire statement from the chamber board:

"Paramount to the (desired) quality of life for our residents and businesses within Marion City and County is well-equipped and well-staffed safety and fire services. There is no question that appropriate funding for fire and safety should be the highest of priorities for our local elected officials. We applaud our city and county for taking their current tax increase requests to the voters and we recognize the effort both entities have made to identify where increased tax revenue will be spent.

"The Marion Area Chamber of Commerce encourages the city and county to bring a unified proposal before the voters; a proposal that exhibits collaboration, joining of forces, mergers and/or sharing of resources. At this time, the Chamber Board has agreed to take no position on the current initiative to ask taxpayers to pay more taxes, which we believe will only perpetuate the current silo approach to local government."

Much has been made about the need to shore up safety forces in our community. Layoffs in the city police department and in the sheriff's office have been much lamented. It's important to realize that other services performed by government have been hurt as well. It took too long to clean up after a recent wind storm. We have too many roads in need of repair. We have limited office hours to do business with the county at great inconvenience to residents.

Combining 9-1-1 services is a laudable goal. But it is hardly a panacea. Combining police and fire departments is incredibly complicated and involves much more than overcoming political turf.

Ironically, as the chamber was issuing its statement, a national publication was lauding the efforts being made in Columbus that have made it the envy of the nation when it comes to job growth.

"The quick story of Columbus," Rana Foroohor writes in Time Business' Curious Capitalist, "is that a Democratic mayor got a bunch of Republican businessmen in the city to agree to - gasp - a tax increase, in order to do the kinds of investments (in infrastructure, job retraining, education, and downtown renovation) that result in real growth. And that's what they've gotten there."

We can talk about saving money by combining services, but that's not going to change anything.

If we are serious about improving Marion, we need to be thinking less about maintaining the status quo and more about how we can make real investments in our future.

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Our Opinion: Taxes to maintain safety don't go far enough

The news that the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce's board is neutral on two ballot issues to increase taxes in the city and county of Marion could be interpreted as a step in the right direction.